Opinion

Idealistic ideas for smoke-free campus should go up in smoke

By Bill Pomerleau

Posted on Oct. 25, 2007, at 12:00 a.m.

In an idealistic world, there would be no parking problem, a hot dog would cost 75 cents in the Marketplace, tuition would stay the same and when you asked your professor for an extension on your paper, the answer would always be “yes.”

The problem is that we live in the real world. Therefore, we have to deal with the real issues in a real way. Chris Harmon, in his editorial about my stance on a tobacco-free campus, distorted my position and perspective and was grossly inaccurate.

There have been two General Student Senate resolutions passed this semester about the tobacco issue – not three. One supported the formation of a university committee looking into a tobacco-free campus, and the other opposed making tobacco smoke illegal on campus.

My two main points, contrary to what Sen. Harmon has stated, are as follow: First of all, making the University of Maine a tobacco-free campus will not be enforceable, nor will it work. Students will continue to smoke, and there is still a great number of students who don’t believe this policy needs to be made. Second, the campus should pursue an informational campaign about the effects of tobacco smoking and provide nicotine-addiction medication to students at low cost.

These decisions haven’t been made hastily or based on personal preference. My role as a public official lies within what I feel is in the students’ interest, rather than my own. I have spoken to countless students about their feelings on a tobacco-free campus. I found a small minority of non-smokers most strongly supported eliminating smoking. The other non-smokers either didn’t care or didn’t think it should happen; this is not to mention the smokers themselves.

From there, the facts remain: The campus does not adequately enforce current tobacco policies, much less have a need to tighten them. In addition, if you tell college students that they can’t do something, they are probably going to do it anyway – and they will continue to smoke and, potentially, bring it inside campus buildings.

Therefore, there needs to be a more collaborative action. Help college students quit smoking; don’t just smack a cigarette from their lips. Give them information about tobacco – what it does to you, what it does to others, why it’s important to quit. Then help provide them low-cost medicine that will help them with nicotine addiction. I assert that eliminating tobacco smoking on this campus will come much quicker if you work with students, not against them.

I welcome Sen. Harmon’s and anyone else’s thoughts on this issue. I am not opposed to an anti-smoking movement; I am opposed to declaring it illegal across the board. It needs to be slow and collaborative. That is what I feel is in the interest of UMaine students, as their president.

The idealism behind how nice it would be to eliminate smoking altogether is simply incredulous. It is not realistic, and regardless of what was quoted from the Federalist Papers, the job of president of the student body requires the person holding it to perform based upon the reality of situations, not upon hope.

As Ben Franklin said, “He that lives upon hope will die fasting.” Lend the students a helping hand; don’t smack them across the face with it.

Bill Pomerleau is a fourth-year history major and president of Student Government, Inc.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.